Vacation in Holland
I just had a terrific two weeks in Holland. And it's great to be back in Alkmaar, the little town close to Amsterdam where I was born. The funny thing about Alkmaar is that it seems that time stood still. I've been in Germany for half a year and when I came back I've noticed only two changes: 1) The new stadium for the Alkmaarisch soccer team AZ is finished 2) A pub that was used to be a pub for old alcoholics has been transformed into a trendy looking lounge bar.
That's it! For the rest nothing has changed. Somehow I kind of like that about Alkmaar. Even my friends are still the same. The first five minutes when you meet your friends again are unique. People are happy to see you again, embrace you and ask questions. After that five minutes everything goes on as if you've never been away. I was warned beforehand that this would happen so it wasn't such a shock to me. On the contrary: I kind of liked it. In school everybody knows what you've been doing and what prizes you've won. But in Alkmaar they don't give a hoot about advertising and prizes. Here I'm just 'plain old Robin who happened to have been away for half a year to do some study'.
There have been some changes in the rest of Holland. In the two weeks that I've been here I saw the fall of the Dutch football team and the fall of the Dutch parliament. The first fall is the worst of course, because I wanted it to be a great party in Holland. Well, I'm afraid I'll have to cheer for the German team now.
Unexpectedly, I'm going home on monday. Yesterday I contacted my flatmate Emilia because I needed her keys. I thought she'd go back to school on tuesday, but she goes to Hamburg by car on monday already! So I can ride with her back to Hamburg. I think losing my keys wasn't such a bad incident after all. It gave me four extra days in Holland and it didn't cost me very much extra. And with these four days extra I also got two weekends extra to party. I'm glad to go back to Hamburg again, but I will certainly miss Holland. This has probably been the best vacation ever!
That's it! For the rest nothing has changed. Somehow I kind of like that about Alkmaar. Even my friends are still the same. The first five minutes when you meet your friends again are unique. People are happy to see you again, embrace you and ask questions. After that five minutes everything goes on as if you've never been away. I was warned beforehand that this would happen so it wasn't such a shock to me. On the contrary: I kind of liked it. In school everybody knows what you've been doing and what prizes you've won. But in Alkmaar they don't give a hoot about advertising and prizes. Here I'm just 'plain old Robin who happened to have been away for half a year to do some study'.
There have been some changes in the rest of Holland. In the two weeks that I've been here I saw the fall of the Dutch football team and the fall of the Dutch parliament. The first fall is the worst of course, because I wanted it to be a great party in Holland. Well, I'm afraid I'll have to cheer for the German team now.
Unexpectedly, I'm going home on monday. Yesterday I contacted my flatmate Emilia because I needed her keys. I thought she'd go back to school on tuesday, but she goes to Hamburg by car on monday already! So I can ride with her back to Hamburg. I think losing my keys wasn't such a bad incident after all. It gave me four extra days in Holland and it didn't cost me very much extra. And with these four days extra I also got two weekends extra to party. I'm glad to go back to Hamburg again, but I will certainly miss Holland. This has probably been the best vacation ever!
posted by Robin Stam at 8:49 pm
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